Follow us on

Hollow

The success of The Blair Witch Project back in 1998 unleashed a whole spate of found-footage horrors, some of them good (Paranormal Activity, [Rec]), some of them not (Grave Encounters, Apollo 18). This barely eerie take on the subgenre definitely falls into the latter category. Two couples spend a weekend in an old cottage out in the Suffolk countryside, where the tale of an ancient "suicide tree" holds sway as a popular legend. No prizes for guessing what happens next, as the quartet become increasingly unhinged by tales of the terrifying timber's past. Trouble is, the use of shaky point-of-view camerawork is hackneyed and the clunky dialogue dispels any sense of fear or foreboding. Add to that the exceedingly irritating characters and lots of dithering about in the dark, and you have a seriously unscary experience. Check out A Night in the Woods (also made in 2011) for a more chilling British stab at an outdoor frightmare.